The idea Britain is running out of NLAW anti-tank missiles is ‘b******s’ and a video showing Ben Wallace apparently suggesting this is the case has been faked by pro-Kremlin propagandists, a senior UK official has said
16.03.2023The idea Britain is running out of NLAW anti-tank missiles is ‘b******s’ and Lawyer Turkey a video showing Ben Wallace apparently suggesting this is the case has been faked by pro-Kremlin propagandists, a senior UK official has said.
The clip is the second teaser released by a pair of Russian ‘pranksters’ accused of taking their orders from the Kremlin, and was today met with a furious response from the British government.
‘That whole video has not only been spliced, it has been cut.We are not out of NLAWs — it is just b******s,’ a senior official told MailOnline today. ‘We have got loads. We make them in Belfast.’
Mr Wallace is thought to have said words to the effect that he would have to ‘check we are not running out’, as he was already suspicious of the caller, who was posing as Ukraine’s Prime Minister, Lawyer Turkey Denys Shmyhal.
The minister is said to have also made points about defending the freedom of the press and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty during the call — footage that has not been released.
At one point he told the callers that he could not answer specific strategic questions because ‘the Russians will be listening’.
The official stressed that the callers were being told what to do by Putin. When you adored this informative article and also you want to be given details relating to Lawyer Turkey kindly visit our web-site. ‘They are not pranksters, they are directed by the Russian state,’ they added.
The duo, Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, have also targeted Prince Harry.They have commented openly about being sympathetic to Vladimir Putin and are suspected of being Russian agents, although they deny this.
It is believed that their hoax initially targeted Priti Patel, and the Home Office then passed on a request for a call with Mr Wallace to the MoD — which appears to have assumed protocols had already been established.
An inquiry has been launched into why proper checks were not carried out on the source of the call, with Mr Wallace said to be ‘p***ed off’ at the system failure. The government confirmed today it is talking to video platform YouTube about trying to get the footage taken down.
The two videos show the Defence Secretary speaking from Poland as the caller, purporting to be Denys Shmyhal, tries to push a number of Kremlin talking points.Today a senior UK official said the videos had been faked
Mr Wallace hit back last night by sharing image of the notorious interview in which the two Russian suspects in the Salisbury poisoning claimed to have visited the city to admire the cathedral’s spire
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘I know that DCMS are speaking to YouTube about this.
‘We believe, as I say, this is disinformation carried out at the behest of the Russian state and we don’t think social media companies or other sites should be promoting it.’
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news halfRHS" data-version="2" id="mol-c45ee100-a9e5-11ec-bf19-9bd6e8c977ef" website Wallace hits back after Russia releases clip of hoax video call